We heard rumors during the calm of the storm last night before Google I/O, and now it’s official. Google today announced what they’re calling Google Play Music All Access, which is the company’s own take on music streaming, and they look to take on Spotify and Rdio, which are the two main heavyweights in this category.
The mobile app looks to have all of the same features that we’ve seen in music streaming subscription services in the past, including personalized recommendations, featured music, and the ability to create radio stations out of the music that you enjoy the most. This gets based on a certain artist or song, similar to how Pandora creates different stations.
While a song is playing, you also have the choices of giving it the thumbs up or thumbs down, as well as the ability to rearrange future songs in the automated playlist, as well as swiping away the songs you don’t want to listen to. Google says that All Access is a music player “without rules,” meaning that you can have be as interactive as you want, or just let it do it’s thing.
Basically, it’s nothing that we already haven’t seen before in Spotify, Pandora, or Rdio, but there are a few minor features that music enthusiasts may enjoy greatly. Plus, if you’re already deep into the Google ecosystem, this could be a great addition to your app collection. And like Spotify, you can upload your own music to the app and have it appear right along side all the other content. All Access will also be available as a web app for cross-platform enjoyment. As for price, you’re looking at $9.99/month for unlimited access.
Back on February 22, word surface at the Financial Times that Google would be launching a free music streaming service, possibly in addition to an ad-free subscription option. Not much information was offered at the time, except that it would allow the company to compete with some other big-name companies, and would give its users access to millions of tracks. Now sources have come forward stating the service will be announced tomorrow.
The information comes from sources who spoke to the folks over at The Verge, also reporting that Google has penned deals with both Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. Such deals will provide the rumored subscription service with access to vast quantities of artists. This is in addition to deal with Warner Music Group reported by Fortune back on March 5.
While the rumor that surfaced earlier this year said that Google will be offering a free music streaming service, The New York Times has stated that its sources say that won’t be the case, with only a for-pay subscription model being offered. That is disappointing, but the subscription service – although no numbers have been dropped yet – is likely to be priced similar to its competition, meaning $10 or less monthly.
We still haven’t heard whether the service will only be available to those located in the United States or elsewhere as well. And while information on what, precisely, the service will be like is unknown, word has it the subscription model will compete with Spotify and similar other companies, meaning it will probably share some of the same functionality.
The information hasn’t been confirmed, with all three record labels declining comment and Google obviously having nothing to say on the matter. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long to see if the sources pan out, with the announcement slated for tomorrow. We’re currently at the event, and will let you know as soon as we hear anything.
Sure, Google I/O may not focus on new products, but it might just take a moment to unveil the firm’s take on music streaming. According to The Verge, Mountain View has inked licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment for YouTube and Google Play. With Fortune having reported that a similar deal with Warner Music Group is already in the can, it’s entirely possible that the search titan could reveal its Spotify-like service at the developer event, now that it’s reportedly reached critical mass with major music labels. If things pan out as the Financial Times sees them, the tune streaming would complement Google Music, and likely sport paid and free, ad-supported experiences. Page & Co.’s dev shindig may not have skydivers this year, but on-demand music may be on the program.
Amazon’s Cloud Player may have been accessible on PCs through browsers since its launch, but today Bezos & Co. have given the service a desktop app of its own. Once installed, the free program will detect and add music from iTunes and Windows Media Player to its library, and continue doing so as new songs are purchased from other storefronts. Naturally, tunes bought from the firm can be streamed and downloaded through the application, and even exported to iTunes. While there’s no sign of Linux support, the company says it’s working on a version just for Mac users. If you count yourself in Microsoft’s camp, hit the neighboring source link for the download.
Music boxes are one of the oldest forms of storing and playing back music. Just don’t expect anything fancy. Now the simple music box concept has been taken to the next level. We’re talking huge. If this Steamroller music box ever gets loose, it will flatten you to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner.
Dave Cole completed this sculpture last year, He took an 11-ton steamroller, stripped it apart and turned it into a functional music box. It proudly plays the national anthem of the United States – like a monster delicately playing an instrument.
I don’t know whether to smile or run. Maybe both are appropriate. Just keep away from it’s musical wheel of doom and you’ll be safe.
While iTunes is available for Windows 8, it only works in desktop mode, meaning that there’s no “metro” style app for Apple’s popular music player and media store. Of course, Microsoft really wants Apple to create said app, but according to Windows CFO Tami Reller, that’s not going to happen “any time soon.”
In an interview with CNN, Reller says that Microsoft has attempted to convince Apple to build a Windows 8 app for iTunes, but the Cupertino-based company doesn’t seem to want to budge, even though such an app “is in high demand” for Windows 8 users, according to Reller. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having just a desktop version of iTunes, but Windows 8 tablet users are out of luck.
Since Surface tablets running Windows RT don’t have a desktop mode, iTunes users won’t be able to access the music player and media store on their tablet, and will have find a computer in order to manage their music, movies, and iOS apps. Surface Pro users have access to desktop mode, however, but the experience isn’t as good as on a full-size computer.
Apple has made much of their software available for Windows, but as the world is shifting more towards tablets, it seems the competitiveness has increased along with the rise in tablets, and Apple may be thinking twice about bringing their software over to Windows tablets, simply because the company wants to keep the exclusivity with iTunes.
Currently, the Windows app store has over 60,000 apps available for download, and there’s been around 250 million downloads total so far. Reller says that it’s a “realistic achievement” to have all the most popular apps in the iTunes App Store available in the Windows app store by the time the holiday season rolls around.
On April 28th, the iTunes Store turned 10. Back in 2003, Apple opened up shop for its digital goods and the impact on the industry is still quite evident today. In a new edition of our weekly, we examine the iTunes influence and whether or not streaming services could cut into its success. Eyes-On goes after a set of Ultimate Ears, Switched On spends three days without Google Glass and Fall Out Boy’s Joe Trohman tackles the Q&A. Unfortunately, we couldn’t include a slide of cake with each download, but you can rest assured that there’s plenty of fresh-baked digital goodness via the usual repositories.
I’m probably dating myself, but I still have a massive collection of old vinyl records gathering dust in bins in my closet. I actually no longer have a turntable, so other than the few records I purchased as CDs or in digital formats, I haven’t listened to them in a dog’s age. So when Crosley was nice enough to let me take their Spinnerette Turntable for a spin, I was happy to oblige.
I love the retro design of the Spinnerette, which has a carrying handle and a flip-down turntable surface for playing your old 33s, 45s and 78s. To the right of the turntable is a monophonic speaker, along with volume and tone controls, while underneath the turntable are connectors for USB, headphones, and even auxiliary audio in. Since it’s built from plastic, you’re not going to want to throw it around, but records themselves are delicate things too.
The Spinnerette isn’t just any old turntable. It can both play records and convert them to digital files. Just connect the turntable to your PC or Mac via the included USB cable, install the software, and you can copy records to digital audio files – assuming you have the patience to listen to your entire record collection as you rip them into your computer.
The bundled software is actually the open-source Audacity, which is available for both PC and Mac and can record audio via the turntable’s USB connector. I first tested the software on my Mac (running OSX 10.8.3). You’ll definitely want to read the software installation guide provided on the installation DVD, as there are a number of steps to setting up Audacity to record the best quality sound from the turntable. I spent a good 30 minutes trying to get audio that wasn’t distorted and clipped, and I also had to hunt around for something called LAME in order to get MP3s to output from Audacity. Having no success getting undistorted audio on the Mac, I switched to my Windows 7 PC and had much better luck there. It took only a couple of minutes to get up and running on my PC without the clipped audio I experienced on the Mac.
Once you get the Audacity software set up, you hit the record button, put the needle on the turntable, and let the record play all the way through. When finished with one side of your record, you can use Audacity’s “Silence Finder” to automatically detect the beginning and end of tracks. This process is a bit fiddly, and doesn’t work on 100% of recordings, but on most records with definitive breaks between tracks it does the trick. That said, you can manually tag tracks as well. Once the tracks are divvied up, you can bulk-save them as individual MP3, WAV or OGG files.
Overall audio quality of digitized recordings is indistinguishable from the original records – at least to my untrained ear. Here’s an example recording I grabbed from an old Rolling Stones’ recording of Not Fade Away:
Not too shabby, I say. Audacity also provides the ability to normalize volume levels, and clean up pops and scratches if you so choose – though I kind of like the charm of the old scratchy LPs. Speaking of which, part of the fun of the Spinnerette is the fact that it’s a complete, portable turntable, amplifier and speaker, so you can listen to your old records they way they were meant to be heard – on a small, monophonic speaker. I’m not a turntable snob, but there’s definitely something very special about listening to vinyl records this way, versus digital files. I’m not saying it’s something I’d do every day, but it’s a welcome treat. Of course, I’ll have digital versions of my records once I’m done ripping them anyhow.
Overall, I’ve had fun with the Spinnerette. At its core, it does what Crosley says it will – play vinyl records and convert them to digital files. I have to say that while I’ve enjoyed dusting off my old records and listening to them on the Spinnerette, the process of ripping records to digital files is time-consuming and requires a bit of trial and error. And for Mac users, it appears to be flat-out broken. It would be much better if Crosley would develop their own simplified software just for performing the task instead of trying to use Audacity, since the target audience for turntables is probably a bit older and less tech savvy anyhow. Bottom line – if you’ve got numerous records to rip, it could take quite some time and effort to get them converted. On the plus side, you’ll only have to do it one time, and then your vinyl memories will be forever preserved in digital form.
You can get the Spinnerette turntable over at Crosley Radio for $149.95(USD), in either blue or red.
Disclosure: Crosley Radio provided the turntable for review in this article. However, all reviews are the unbiased views of our editorial staff.
Spotify has recently acquired Tunigo, a music discovery app that creates themed playlists based on your mood. Spotify will transfer all of Tunigo’s 20+ employees to its offices in both Stockholm and New York, where they will be focusing their efforts on Spotify’s main service. Tunigo will still continue to run, however it’s still unknown what Spotify plans on doing with it. It may integrate Tunigo’s playlist feature into its service.
It’s speculated that this recent acquisition has something to do with Twitter’s acquisition of We Are Hunted. Both companies are trying to drive people to stick with their services, so they are pulling out all of the stops to do so. While the music streaming industry is pretty saturated, many companies are still trying to break into the field in order to generate more revenue. To give you an idea of how much revenue music streaming can generate, Warner Music Group stated that it received 25% of its revenue from music streaming alone.
Tunigo is similar to Songza. It allows users to play and generate music playlists based on their mood. They can choose a playlist for when they’re working out, cooking, dancing, feeling nostalgic, and more. Tunigo piggybacks off of Spotify, generating music, playlists and more through the service. With the help of Spotify, it is able to keep track of all of the latest music additions, user recommendations and more to create specific playlists.
What we’re hoping is for Spotify to integrate Tunigo into its service somehow, instead of being like Yahoo and killing off its acquisition. The music streaming market is getting more and more competitive. Currently, the big dogs are Spotify and Pandora, however Apple plans on launching its own music streaming service called iRadio, which is speculated to launch over the summer. The industry is about to get tumultuous and these services will have to pull out all the stops to stay relevant.
Just about every gamer we know has wanted to alter a game world on the spot, whether it’s to cheat, fix game mechanics or experiment. Special Stage Systems’ Ming Mecca system is built entirely around that concept — and will definitely appeal to anyone with a fondness for analog electronics. Knobs and switches on its World Core synthesizer module adjust the game machine’s maps, graphics, characters and even physics through voltage tweaks. Players only have to load assets on an SD card if they’d like a different look, and they even have access to the firmware and schematics if they want to go completely off the beaten path. Input is just as unconventional: a Control Core turns NES-compatible gamepads into signal generators that can be used just as easily for music making as for playing. Ming Mecca isn’t expected to ship until summer 2014, and it won’t be cheap at an estimated $999 for a World Core and $350 for the Control Core. Even so, we’re sorely tempted to splurge — it’s not often that a gadget scratches so many of our nostalgic itches at once.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
